Post on 05-Jul-2020
transcript
Institute of Pathology
University of Regensburg
Biobanking - an ongoing challenge for
personalised medicine
BRoTHER – a new biobank network in the centre ofEurope to promote digitalisation in biobanking
SummaryBiobanking is a fast-growing field in basic, clinical andtranslational research. With that, biobanking is cruciallyinvolved in the further optimisation of personalisedmedicine, which is one of the leading concepts inmodern medicine. Since personalised medicine workswith highly specific and well-characterised cohorts, theinteraction of biobanks will become more and moreimportant to enable the setting up of relevantcollectives for basic and translational research.
In special characterised entities and in rare diseases,a multicentre approach is crucial to ensure theinclusion of significant numbers of biobank specimensin an appropriate time. Digitalisation and thepossibility to share information and knowledge bydigitalisation represent an important issue within thenetworking of different biobanks which are active inthe clinical context. The interaction and co-operationof biobanks of different countries must overcomespecific challenges even if these countries are locatedwithin the European Union.
The project, BRoTHER (Biobank Research onTelemedical Approaches for Human Biobanks in aEuropean Region), is aimed at analysing the obstacleswhich have to be overcome if clinical relatedbiobanks from two national healthcare systems wantsto work together and set up common biobankprojects by help of digitalisation.
Furthermore, BRoTHER is created to disseminatethe idea of biobanking to young academics and to abroader public. The project is supported by a grantof the Bavarian-Czech University Agency (BTHA)with funding coming from the Bavarian StateMinistry of Finance.
Christoph Brochhausen1, Judita Kinkorova2,
Karl-Friedrich Becker3, Dalibor Valik4, Ondrej
Topolcan2, Wilko Weichert3, Matthias Evert1
1 Institute of Pathology, University
Regensburg, Germany
2 Department of Immunochemistry, Faculty
Hospital Pilsen, Czech Republic
3 Institute of Pathology, Technical University
Munich, Germany
4 Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute, Masaryk
University Brno, Czech Republic
2 www.pathologie-regensburg.de
Biobanking - an ongoing challenge forpersonalised medicineBiobanks represent crucial resources for both clinical
and basic science. They are closely connected to the
development of the concept of personalised medicine.
In this context, biobanks are an important prerequisite
for all the elements of personalised medicine, which
are translational research, new drug development, but
also research in prognosis and prediction. In the last
two decades, there was a rapid development regarding
the number of new biobanks and the dimension of
existing ones.
With the growing number of biobanks, the functions,
characteristics, the aim of several biobanks and the
nature of the biomaterial has changed. Consequently,
the definition of a biobank is not a distinct one but is
dependent on the function of the biobank and the
nature of the stored ‘biomaterial’. In this context, it is
important to realise that the term ‘biomaterial’
describes both real biological material such as tissues,
cells, DNA, RNA, body fluids or even hairs or parts
of the microbiome and virtual ‘biomaterials’ which are
images, clinical data, laboratory values and even many
other data (Fig. 1).
The value of a biobank specimen, especially of a real
biomaterial such as a tissue specimen, is highly
dependent on its biological quality and the potency to
combine it reliably with associated clinical and
laboratory data and if possible or necessary with
several imaging data. Actually, in international
consortia, great efforts are made to analyse the
influence of the various pre-analytic factors on the
biological quality of bio-specimens. This is of special
importance since the analytical methods became
more and more sensitive and with that, various
candidate molecules could be analysed even on the
tissue level – if the biological quality and the tissue
integrity were preserved properly within the biobank
process. With this regard, there was a real change in
paradigm within the biobanking scene. Initially, it was
believed that high-end analytic methods could
compensate a lack of biological quality, but we had to
learn that only high-quality biospecimens lead to
reliable, high quality analytical results which could be
used for high quality clinical or experimental trials.
Thus, nowadays a main focus in biobanking is put on
biospecimen quality.
The biological quality and integrity of a biospecimen is
highly dependent on the pre-analytical conditions from
the interventional removal until storing as well as on
the storing conditions. Furthermore, taking these new
aspects together, one could create a new definition of a
biobank specimen – this is a defined biological material,
which is obtained processed and stored in a reliable and
documented manner and which is combined with valid
clinical data. With view to specimen quality, there are
three important goals within the biobank community:
first to find the best pre-analytical conditions, second to
document all pre-analytical processes as well as the
storing conditions and third to harmonise the
pre-analytical work-flow and the documentations in
different biobanks.
Taking into account the variability of biobanks and
their environment (as mentioned above) it becomes
clear that this is a huge challenge. On the other
hand, the harmonisation of biobanks is crucial for
building appropriate consortia for clinical and
experimental trials in the cadre of the optimisation
personalized medicine.
In this context, building networks of biobanks
represents a crucial element to enable large
multicentre trials, especially in the research of rare
diseases. An important pre-requisite for the
appropriate exchange of biobank specimens for its
potential use in research projects represents the
harmonisation of the pre-analytical workflow, the
quality control management of the biobank-workflow
and the protocols of the analytical methods of the
connected biobanks. On the European level the
Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research
Infrastructure – European Research Infrastructure
Consortium (BBMRI-ERIC) is an important network
for biobanks in Europe.
BBMRI is a European leader in biobanking and is
crucially involved in further developments of the
biobank idea. Within BBMRI and BBMRI-ERIC great
efforts were made to harmonise various aspects
of biobanking on the European level. In addition,
there are several scientific societies bringing scientists
from various disciplines together working in the
environment of biobanks or repositories respectively.
Two well-known Societies are the European, Middle
Eastern and African Society for Biopreservation and
Biobanking (ESBB) and the International Society for
Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER).
These two societies and even others which may be
more specialised on specific topics in the field of
biobanking and preservation, illustrates the broad
interdisciplinary approach of this field. This also
Fig. 1 Our biobank concept follows the philosophy of data rich
biobanking. This includes the interconnection of different databases
to integrate pathological, clinical and laboratory data in the
specimen history.
www.pathologie-regensburg.de 3
illustrates the multidisciplinary facets which are
involved in biobanking and which should be
considered as important pre-requisites for both the
establishment and the conduction of a biobank.
Furthermore, the fact of the existence of several
national and international societies and consortia
dealing with the different points of biobanking also
illustrates the need to bring researchers together in
an interdisciplinary manner to enable the exchange
and establishment of common structures. These
societies and consortia are also important to interact
with politics on different levels and with research
foundation agencies to discuss and to clear the legal
framework for biobanking, to clear the way for
research programmes dealing with biobanking and to
find possibilities for the sustainability of biobanks.
However, besides these great networks and consortia,
regional biobank networks with a smaller number of
partners could also give an innovative input in the
biobanking idea. Regional biobank networks could
focus on the set-up on common projects with
biobank specimens or on the harmonisation of
workflows in a circumscribed biobank environment.
Since regional biobank networks have to harmonise a
smaller number of different local workflows,
management systems and local regulations, the
harmonisation process itself could be monitored
easily. From this experience the great consortia might
profit from the harmonisation of multiple biobanks.
In this context, we hope that the harmonisation of our
new regional biobank network could be finished
within an appropriate time so that hopefully we can
begin to set up common research projects. Obviously,
such regional networks should neither be seen as a
template for the interaction of biobanks on the
European level nor as a competition of the great
European networks. However, one important aim of
our regional biobank network is not only to identify
various obstacles within the implementation of
harmonisation processes at the member biobanks, but
also to monitor the way how harmonisation problems
were solved. The monitoring of the harmonisation
process and the troubleshooting within our regional
network could be inspiration for a greater network.
The communication and the exchange with relevant
European networks such as BBMRI and BBMRI-ERIC
is given by the fact that some of the members of
our network play an active role within BBMRI.
Furthermore, the German partners are involved in the
standardisation process of biobanking both on the
national level as members in the German Institute of
Normation (DIN) and as member in the International
Standardization Organization (ISO).
In addition, the monitoring and troubleshooting of first
common projects of BRoTHER could also give
valuable information for the European networks. To
enable an optimal collaboration of our regional
biobank, web-based tools for the data exchange are
mandatory to guarantee the long-term success of such
a network. In this context, the digitalisation of a smaller
biobank network seems to be less complicated. Taking
these thoughts together, we are convinced that the
regional biobank network will significantly improve the
translational and basic research within the connected
partners and give interesting information to BBMRI
and BBMRI-ERIC.
BRoTHER - regional co-operation forvisionary workBRoTHER represents an international and
interdisciplinary consortia project, which was funded
by a grant of the Bavarian-Czech Research Agency
with financial resources of the Bavarian State Ministry
of Finance, Land Development and Homeland with a
funding period of three years (Fig. 2).1
BRoTHER is an acronym standing for: ‘Biobank
Research on Telemedical Approaches for Human
Biobanks in a European Region.’ Furthermore, this
Fig. 2 BRoTHER represent a consortium to facilitate the
co-operation of Biobanks in Bavaria and the Czech Republic with
the aim to engross the relation of these two neighbouring regions.
With that purpose BRoTHER became funded by the Bavarian-
Czech-Research Agency (BTHA) with money from the Bavarian
State Ministry of Finances, Development and Home
Fig. 3 Members of the BRoTHER consortium from left to right:
Judita Kinkorova (Pilsen), Christoph Brochhausen (Regensburg),
Claudia Fischer (Regensburg) Karl-Friedrich Becker (Munich),
Ondrej Topolcan (Pilsen), Andrè Gessner (Regensburg), Matthias
Evert (Regensburg) and Dalibor Valik (Brno)
4 www.pathologie-regensburg.de
acronym is dedicated to the European anthem (‘Every
man became a brother’) as a strong commitment to
the European spirit. Finally, BRoTHER clearly conveys
the close relationship between the network partners,
which comprise a very open and trustful way of
interaction.
Within this project a network is created, which actually
consists of four partners, two in Bavaria (Germany)
and two in the Czech Republic. The German partners
of the network are the Institute of Pathology of
the University Regensburg, which function as the
co-ordinator of BRoTHER and the Institute of
Pathology of the Technical University Munich. The
partners of the Czech Republic are the Department
of Immunochemistry of the Faculty Hospital Pilsen and
the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute from the
Faculty of Medicine of the Masaryk University in Brno
(Fig. 3). As a brand for this project, a logo was designed
by a professional communication design agency
(http://www.gruene-kd.de/). The philosophy behind
the brand development was to symbolise both the
close connectivity of the partners and the openness
of the network for potential new partners in the
region (Fig. 4).
The vision of BRoTHER is to facilitate the interaction
and co-operation of the biobanks with help of
digitalisation. To reach this goal, BRoTHER is aimed to
create an interactive, interregional biobank network
in the centre of Europe, to harmonise biobank
infrastructures, and activities related to the effective
international collaboration and experience exchange,
workflows and the integration of study programme
development. The main topic in that aim is to consider
the regional specificities resulting from the fact that
that the network acts in different healthcare systems
and from the fact, that this regional network is located
in a former region of a nearly closed border. The latter
was a relevant issue for the funding which aims to the
regional development of the ancient border region
with the goal to give further incentives for a regional
co-operation especially at the level of academic
co-operation and exchange. In this context, BRoTHER
will support the initialisation of clinical trials with
biobank specimens between Bavaria and the Czech
Republic. With the location in the centre of Europe
the network will represent a unique example for
effective inter-regional co-operation in Europe and
thus could act in the future as an innovative nucleus
for interconnected biobanking.
With view to digitalisation of the interaction of
biobanks, we will create a prototype of a digital
pathology framework in which secondary
consultations regarding biobank-specimens could be
conducted remotely for accurate tissue diagnosis and
the potential use in a research project. Therefore, we
believe that employing the mature enough Whole Slide
Imaging (WSI) and Virtual Microscopy (VM)
technologies in a regional network of tissue biobanks
will not only provide access to such expertise but will
also create new research projects within that network.
Furthermore, by comparing the produced histological
slides of the stored tissue samples between the
connected biobanks, an interactive discussion
regarding tissue storage and pre-analytics will be
promoted. Therefore, our framework will include the
possibility of interactive standard operation
procedure (SOP) – development regarding tissue
sampling, pre-analytics and tissue storage techniques.
Thus, the network will promote future collaboration
projects due to harmonised SOP’s.
Finally, a so-called minimal-information set regarding
the histopathological information, which should be
part of a biobank specimen evaluation prior to
potential inclusion in a research project will be
established. To train the handling of the digital
pathology framework and the application of the SOP’s
within the infrastructure of the connected biobanks,
a training programme will be established for biobank
staff. After the three years of developing and
evaluation this workshop will be open for all
interested members of human biobanks. In addition,
through public events the consortium will inform the
public in the participating regions regarding the need
and the function of biobanking for healthcare,
especially with view to the need for collaborative
work of biobanks. Consequently, BRoTHER will
integrate both, the interregional co-operation on the
scientific but also on the public level.
The architecture and organisation of BRoTHERThe architecture of the project and the biobank
network is based on four main topics. The backbone
of the project will be the digitalisation and
interconnection of WSI and an interactive digital
pathology framework for interactive secondary
consultations. In this context, the project partner will
Fig. 4 The BRoTHER-logo: BRoTHER is an acronym for Biobank
Research on Telemedical Approaches for Human Biobanks in a
European Region. The round dots represent the biobank locations in
the colour of the corporate identity (blue for Munich, grey for
Regensburg, red for Pilsen and dark blue for Brno). The orientation
of the dots represents the geographic situation of the four partner
sites. The lines between the dots symbolise the close connectivity of
the network. However, the connectivity by the line drawings is not
closed which symbolises the openness for potential new partners
(The logo was designed by Grüne Kommunikationsdesign,
www.gruene-kd.de)
www.pathologie-regensburg.de 5
also make efforts in the complex field of extraction
and digitalisation of a data from pathological reports.
Furthermore, the comparison of the pre-analytic
procedures at the partner biobanks as well as its
digitalisation will be crucial pre-requisites for the
future initialisation of common research projects.
Another important topic represents the
dissemination of biobank knowhow and public
relations, which will bring the biobank idea nearer to
students of science and medicine but also to a
broader public in the region. Finally, special attention
will be given to the co-ordination and the
management of the network, which will be crucial for
the successful interconnectivity work. In this field, the
organisation of workshops, symposia, a summer
school and a student exchange between the
participating biobanks will be organised.
Each project partner is responsible for one of the
main topics and will share the knowledge with the
partners. In addition, each partner will participate
within the other main topics, so that the specific
conditions of each partner sites will be taken into
account within the different topics. This will be an
important prerequisite for potential harmonisation of
the workflows at each partner site.
To really and effectively interconnect the partners,
workshops, symposia, summer schools and student
exchange programmes will stimulate the harmonisation
process. With public events the project partners will
not only sensitise the public in Bavaria and the Czech
Republic for the need of biobanking to optimise
personalised medicine, but also for the need of
inter-regional research activities.
Digital pathology – a backbone forbiobank interconnectionIn the BRoTHER, network digital pathology will give
the virtual filament which builds the connection of the
partners. The aim is to interconnect the partner
biobanks via a digital pathology framework based on
WSI. This will facilitate both the interactive and easy
to handle exchange of imaging data and a tool for
secondary consultations of histopathological features.
These features will facilitate the establishment of
common projects because the availability of
appropriate biobank specimens could already be
checked in the planning phase of a project.
Furthermore, if a project protocol requires secondary
consultations of histopathological data, this could be
easily performed interactively within the project if it
is performed with the project partners.
The first step to reach this goal is to create a
prototype of a digital pathology framework. For this
purpose, we use modern web-based technologies for
WSI and virtual microscopy (Fig. 5). These parameters
are crucial prerequisites to develop a tool for sharing
histological image data and interactive image
evaluation. As a base for this development the
framework of ‘Pate’ will be used.2,3 Originally
developed as a user-friendly e-learning tool to teach
histopathology, this tool was awarded the highest
German academic teaching award, the ‘Ars legendi
Award’ in 2015, by the German Medical Faculty Day. 4
After transforming this platform from German into
English for its international use, we will modify the
Pate tool to create a prototype of a digital pathology
framework to use it for interactive reference
pathological analyses. In this context, it is crucial to
optimise the tool for both desktop and small screens.
Via several feedback loops during the development of
the framework we will optimise it to realise a smart
and user friendly online consultation system.
Regarding the development of such a system the
consortium partners profit from the experience in the
application of modern telemedical approaches in the
academic pathological field by one of the project
Fig. 5 A special issue of the BRoTHER consortium represent a Whole Slide Imaging tool for interactive second opinion process for histopathological
evaluation of tissue biobank specimens.
6 www.pathologie-regensburg.de
partners.5 The important value and accuracy of
telemedical approaches for pathological diagnostics
was demonstrated not only within the workflow of
histopathological diagnostics but also with view to 3D
microscopy.6,7
For the application of such a tool in clinical or
research practice respectively, it is important to
guarantee safe and unique access to this digital system
during image sharing. For this purpose, a special
software will be used.
An important issue of the BRoTHER consortium is
to disseminate the knowledge and relevance of
modern information techniques for both disciplines
namely biobanking and modern pathology. Therefore,
the project partners are organising workshops and
symposia. The aim of these events is to make graduate
and post graduate students, but also researchers and
technical staff familiar with the art of modern web
technologies and with the potency of their application
in biobanking and digital pathology. The most
important feature in this regard represents the
graduate and doctoral students exchange between the
laboratories of the partner sites. Students from all the
partner sites have the opportunity to work in the
project via an exchange programme. The project
partners also integrate the public since the need for
interactive and interregional biobank research will be
presented in public lectures. With that also the public
will learn about the importance of biobanking and the
participation to optimise personalised medicine. The
organisation of these events will be illustrated below.
Pathological reports – a treasure andchallenge for data extraction and usein biobankingPathological reports, especially the histopathological
reports, represent valuable sources for relevant
information regarding the specific type of a lesion, the
exact dimension and the extent of a lesion with view
to the potential affection of the surrounding tissue.
Furthermore, general tissue reactions which are
accompanied by specific lesions such as necrosis,
inflammation, fibrosis, regeneration and wound
healing are classified in the histopathological report.
From special value are the histopathological reports
of malignant tumours since they include important
information regarding staging and grading but also the
expression of specific prognostic markers, as well as
the expression of molecules which are targets for
innovative therapeutic strategies in the cadre of
personalised medicine. The goal of these new
strategies in oncology is to treat malignant tumours
more specific, more effective and with less side
effects.8 A special challenge represents malignant
tumours in children and young adults which could
achieve long-term remission using mainly
conventional treatment regimes in approximately
80%. However, a relevant number of children and
adolescents die every year caused by malignant
tumours, for which reason cancer remains a major
cause of morbidity and mortality in this population.9
Even if the reasons for that situation are
multifactorial, specific characteristics of tumours in
this age group represent one of these reasons. In this
context, the histopathological reports include
information regarding cellular characteristics and
relevant tissue parameters such as vascularisation of
tumours, the proliferation of the tumour cells, the
immunological reaction of the surrounding tissue as
well as the aggressiveness and the invasiveness of the
tumour. Especially from the scientific point of view
the digital extraction of relevant information out of
the histopathological reports would be of special
interest for both a better understanding of the
tumour biology and the definition of new targets for
potential new treatment strategies. The vision is the
extraction of relevant information and the digital
integration within a biobank data management
system. One way to reach this goal would be the use
of structured formalised histopathological reports
instead of unstructured continuous text which is
mainly reality for pathological reports.
From the pathological point of view, the continuous
text more likely gives the possibility to express subtle
but relevant information regarding different levels of
informative parameters and their relationship with
view to the pathological relevance of the
morphological findings. However, each pathological
report finishes by a distinct epicrisis, which clearly
define the anatomic-pathological lesion, its grading and
the relevant information which is important for recent
therapeutic strategies. In fact, the epicrisis represents
the critical conclusion of the histopathological findings.
Nevertheless, the information which is given in the
histopathological description within the continuous
text is of special importance, first because it gave the
rational base for the epicrisis and second because it
contains a huge amount of information which could
be relevant for scientific use. Especially within the
further development of personalised medicine the
histopathological findings could help to describe
specific tumour characteristics as well we potential
therapeutic and prognostic factors respectively.
Taking these issues into account it is of special interest
not only to extract information regarding the tumour
entity, its stage and grade out of the pathological
record but also information from the histopathological
description. Data extraction out of a formalised text
or out of a structured text given in a table or which
represent more thesaurus as a text might be easy to
extract by digitalisation. However, the extraction of
information out of a continuous text represent a huge
challenge. As a first approach to this complex field
within BRoTHER, we compare the structure of
pathology reports especially from tumour patients at
all partner sites, followed by an analysis of its level of
www.pathologie-regensburg.de 7
formalisation. This topic of BRoTHER is also open for
the student exchange programme.
Graduate and post graduate students from one
partner site visit the pathological institute of the other
site and will have the opportunity to analyse the
pathological report preparation, the content of the
reports as well as their structure and their level of
formalisation. As a result of these visits, formalised
structure organograms of the pathological reports of
each site will be accessible, which will be compared
within a workshop. Furthermore, within the same visit
students will evaluate the needs for pathological
report data at the biobanks of each site as a base to
create a so-called ‘minimal information set’, which will
also be performed during a workshop with the
students and the researches of the partner sites. The
definition of this minimal information set could then
be implemented within the biobank concept at each
partner site. Finally, concepts will be created to set up
a system for collecting data out of pathological reports
to be acceptable for all partners and in accordance
with the system proposed by BBMRI-ERIC.10
Comparative pre-analyticalassessment and digitalisationAn important prerequisite for effective interconnection
and potential co-operation of several biobanks
represents the harmonisation of the pre-analytic
assessment, its monitoring and its documentation
(Fig. 6). Furthermore, the documentation should be
visible for the project partners, for example as defined
levels of quality. In this context, the development of a
detailed concept for the biobank quality management
for both body fluids referring to ‘liquid biobanking’ and
body tissues referring to ‘tissue biobanking’ are
addressed in great European consortial projects.11
These initiatives also include great efforts for the
standardisation of generic pre-analytical procedures for
in vitro diagnostics in personalised medicine.12 The
definition of consistent quality parameters to reach
homogenous biological quality due to harmonisation of
the pre-analytic conditions in biobanking is recently a
matter of a broad debate.13 With this regard, several
multicentre trials regarding measurement of tissue
quality as a function of the numerous processing
alternatives especially as a function of different tissue
fixation were done.14
In the BRoTHER consortium we will evaluate
the national and international recommendations for
pre-analytical pathways and storing conditions to find
ways for their proper implementation in the
workflows of the partner sites. We started with the
analyses and the comparison of the pre-analytical
pathways of biobanks with the project partners and
analysed the ratio behind these. Since biobank
workflows within biobanks dealing with patient
biomaterials have to be applicable at the interface of
the clinical workflow and that of the local biobank,
local conditions and pre-requisites for specimen
samples have to be taken into account for the
harmonisation and the implementation of national and
international standards respectively. From the
pathological point of view, the workflow of tissue
sampling, processing and storage is of special interest.
Fig. 6 a proper documentation of the pre-analytical workflow is given by a code-driven specimen-tracking system, which enables the connection
of the specimen with further data such as pre-analytical parameters, clinical data as well as laboratory data and imaging data
8 www.pathologie-regensburg.de
These processes may be influenced for example by the
fact that the operative theatre is not in the same
building as the biobank with consequences of the time
for cold ischaemia and for the mode of transportation.
Another relevant point represents the protocols for
tissue processing, paraffin embedding and the staining
protocol and procedure. Therefore, within the
BRoTHER consortium the workflow and protocols for
the histological slide production at each site will be
analysed and compared with that of the partners. In
addition, we compare the histological staining results
as a function of pathological interpretation and
potential influence of the scanning results during whole
slide imaging for the digital second opinion workflow.
We feel that these processes are important
pre-requisites for the effective harmonisation of
standard operation procedures with the project
partners. Furthermore, the partners actively take part
in the optimisation of workflows and standard
operation procedures during the harmonisation
processes. Finally, for an effective co-operative work
and a real initialisation of common projects an
appropriate service unite is necessary which will be
implemented in the BRoTHER partner sites.15
To get BRoTHER known -dissemination of biobank knowhowand public relationsA critical issue in modern biobanking represents their
sustainability. Beside appropriate financing of a biobank
infrastructure the acceptance in the public and the
exchange of knowhow are crucial parameters to
guarantee both, the long-term biomaterial donation
by the patients or the population respectively and the
continuous work with state of the art methods.
Furthermore, dissemination is also an important
feature to be attractive for and to get access to the
potential participation in new experimental studies or
trials initialised by third parties. To disseminate and
promote the ideas and the activities of BRoTHER
posters, presentations at relevant conferences and
events, brokerage events, development of information
materials in the languages of the involved partners,
namely in German, English and Czech will be used in
co-operation with all partners. In this context, the
publications with the Pan European Network
represent a further strategy of dissemination, namely
to make BRoTHER known and attractive to the
readership from the European Parliament, the
European Commission but also for European and
national research grant agencies.16,17 Altogether, this
chapter of our dissemination activities address the
scientific community.18 However, for the latter the
most important parameter to attract a biobank for
potential new partners is the scientific activity of a
biobank especially with view to high quality and
innovative trials with biobank specimens.19,20
Therefore, it is crucial for all biobanks and also for our
BRoTHER consortium to publish research data in
peer reviewed journals as original research papers
which are visible in relevant data bases such as
EMBASE or Medline.
The dissemination of biobank knowhow to a broader
public and the work on public relations is important
www.pathologie-regensburg.de 9
for two reasons: the first is to stay attractive for
potential biomaterial donors and gain or keep the
acceptance of the biobank within the public. Finally,
dissemination of biobank knowhow will also be an
instrument to enlighten to the public the need of
biobanking, its role for personalised medicine and its
role in modern biomedical research.
To address this issue, press releases and short
information as well as articles in magazines, journals,
and other printed materials has already and will be
published regularly both in Bavaria and the Czech
Republic. In addition to that, national press releases
will provide information on the most important
initiatives promoted and organised by the project at
national level. Furthermore, co-operation with
relevant associations, infrastructures and other
relevant partners will be initiated to disseminate the
information on the project and to open the space
for the future collaboration. In this context, the
project BRoTHER and the need for biobanks and
biobank research was presented to the public by the
official opening ceremony of the opening of the
biobank at the Faculty Hospital Pilsen in the
beginning of 2017. Furthermore, BRoTHER was
already presented by different workshops at the
Immunoanalytic Days Pilsen 2017 and 2018 to a
broader academic public.
Self-organisation and projectmanagement of BRoTHER – workingtogether and learning from each other An important aim within the BRoTHER consortium is
learning from each other by working together. With
view of the different levels of interconnection and
co-operation, as well as with view to harmonisation of
processes the project partners compare their
workflows, analyse its ratio behind it and evaluate if these
are appropriate with national and international standards
in biobanking. Therefore, self-organisation is another
crucial part within the project, which co-ordinate the
organisation of the workshops and symposia, and the
interactive work among the partners.
Furthermore, the organisation will co-ordinate the
writing and the allocation of the annual progress reports
as well as the final report at the end of the project. This
is done by the co-ordinator of the BRoTHER project
which is the institute of pathology of the University
Regensburg. A crucial element of this interconnected
work represents a student exchange programme of
graduate and post graduate students. They will be
integrated in the different aspects of harmonisation and
digitalisation. They will rotate from one partner to
another and will be actively integrated in the project
work and in the infrastructure of the different biobanks
at the partner sites. With that the students will become
familiar with work flow, the analyses methods and the
standard operation procedures at the different partners
of BRoTHER. Thus, they will learn more about the
project partners of the other country as well as how
the recent developments in whole slide imaging and
biobanking give support to the project.
The main elements of the self-organisation and
management is the organisation of workshops,
symposia, summer schools and public events. These
several types of events should make the
interconnective work of the BRoTHER consortium
known. Furthermore, these events act as a forum for
the project partners to get informed and to discuss
the state of the harmonisation process on several
levels. The different event types followed a kind of
hierarchy regarding the aims and the size.
The workshops represent the smallest eventtype.
They are organised twice a year, one with a Bavarian
partner and one with a partner in the Czech Republic.
The workshop will be open for the students and
scientists working in the different aspects of the
project. Furthermore, they will be open for students
and scientists of the organising site, if they work in the
same field and are interested in interaction. One
important topic of the workshops is practical work
on different aspects of biobanking. The subjects of the
workshops are Biobanking Data Management;
Techniques on Whole Slide Imaging; The Effect of
Pre-analytic for Biobank Specimen; and Ethical, legal
and social aspects of biobanking (ELSI). Furthermore,
during the run time of the project further subjects for
workshops will be identified regarding the needs
becoming obvious during the project work.
Symposia will be held once to twice a year in Bavaria
and the Czech Republic and will bring the students
and scientist of the partners together with leading
researchers in the different fields of the projects. The
most important topic of the symposia is the
presentation of the recent research topics and
research trends within the field of biobanking as well
as the exchange of knowledge. The first symposium
was held in the cadre of the opening ceremony of the
Pilsen Biobank in in 2017. The symposia will be open
for interested researchers not only from the sites of
the project partners but also for all interested
researches in the field of biobanking.
During the funding period two summer schools will
be organised in 2018 and 2019 with the aim to bring
the students of the different work packages together
to present and discuss their activities and results with
each other and with leading researchers in the field.
The idea is that the summer schools will held at each
partner site so that the opportunity is given to learn
more about the partner institutions and the cultural
aspects of the partner cities.
Not only during the funding period but also after that
time several public events will be organised to present
the consortium and its activities to the public and to
sensitise the public for the need of biobanks,
10 www.pathologie-regensburg.de
interregional biobank research and the function of
biobanking in modern medicine.
Future visionIn conclusion, BRoTHER represent an interactive,
interregional biobank network in the centre of
Europe, to harmonise biobank infrastructures and
activities related to the effective international
collaboration and experience exchange, workflows
and the integration of study programs development.
The latter will be focused on graduate students in
medicine since there is a need to bring the relevant
subject of biobanking also in the curriculum of the
human medicine. Taking all these aspects together the
performance of clinical trials with biobank specimens
should be facilitated between Bavaria and the Czech
Republic due to the BRoTHER project. With the
location in the centre of Europe the network will
represent an example for effective inter-regional
co-operation in Europe and thus could act in the
future as an innovative nucleus for interconnected
biobanking, which will be integrated in further
international networks and initiatives, which are
working in the dynamic field of biobanking.
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2 Development of Pat-e an innovative e-learning framework to
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University Medical Centre Mainz (2011-2013; Christoph
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3 Development of a quiz-mode for Pate. MAICUM grant
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Christoph Brochhausen-Delius)
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L, Stanta G, Turano P, Vaught J, Watson P, Wichmann HE, Yuille M,
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Pizzamiglio S, Schott C, Drecoll E, Viertler C, Zatloukal K, Kap
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K, den Bakker M, den Hollander J, Fend F, Neumann J, Reu S,
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www.pathologie-regensburg.de 11
Prof. Dr. Christoph Brochhausen-Delius
Vice Director, Institute of Pathology
Coordinator of the Central Biobank
University Regensburg
+49 (0)941 944 6636
christoph.brochhausen@ukr.de
www.pathologie-regensburg.de